1. "Something living!Nothing injects a sense of life into what can be the least lived-in room in the house like a beautiful plant. If a tree and plant thing feels too high maintenance, you can always put some tulips (or in our part of the world, orchids) and call it a day."

[check!]

2. " Something very personal - an object, a painting, a collection ... it's the personality that makes any room feel grounded and 'real', not some anonymous space."

Ever since Philip Starck came up with his Louis ghost chair, everything else transparent has been catching up. at least for me. Right now, i'm in luv with simple transparent vases (images to be uploaded in the next post),and this 'ghost' table.

Now, how cool is that!?

Aaannd, i'm on leave tomorrow for the first time in ... 10 years?! Happy Friday!

totally had to post this! it made me laugh and i end the day on a good note.do check out Jenny's artwork (one half of chai pilgrims - the other being her husband, a therapeutic ayurvedic teacher), the illustrator of this quirky piece.*update* "the divine essence within me bows to the divine essence within you."= NAMASTE.

G picked me a bag of fallen pines during our first holiday trip together - 'risking his life' in the process as he claims (!). I'm thinkin, pine cones might just set the tone for our wedding next year. It's just so darn hard to make up our minds - too many ideas, thanks to all the wonderful, inspiring blogs out there!

I love how Nicole and Grant made use of the pinecones throughout their wedding.

I am thrilled to hear from Cassandra, the author of coco+kelly barely 30 mins after sending her my inspiration post!

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"Anita, the board is gorgeous! I love that you went for a non-traditional dress, and the cakestands are perfection! Thank you so much for entering - all the way from Singapore! Amazing.
Take care, and good luck!" ~ Cassandra

My inspiration board, inspired by the Moroccan Elle. I wanted to go for stronger colors but was instantly drawn to the room & I simply love the ethnic yet casual feel. Its exactly how I want mine to be.

I am seriously thinking of participating in the inpiration board contest, organised by coco+kelly. I will have to pick any room featured in the image below [out of 36] and build my board/colors around it. Of course, I want to keep in mind our venues as well. I guess I'll be pretty occupied this national day weekend.The winner will get a little prize package, which will include a set of personalized stationery (yeay!) from Pink Lily Press (neat!) as well as a few other goodies that are not revealed as yet.

The Indian Buffet: Dismantled basically sums up everything that I am thinking - about Indians and their feasts. Each time there is a family gathering, I'll just wonder why can't everyone just be quiet for one second and eat their food. And people talk about nothing but the food after an event. We decided we are having nothing of it. Fortunately, unlike the author of this article. International BBQ Buffet it is! yummy!

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Excerpt from the article." ... Simran Bhargava, in her article for Express India, refers to Hall’s theory about high-context and low-context cultures to explain the Indian obsession with weddings and food. According to Hall, high-context cultures are marked by lots of touching, high noise levels and constant interruptions. These cultures (including Latin, Greek and Indian) revolve around groups rather than individuals and they believe in putting food and family at the center of life. By contrast, low-context cultures—such as German, Scandinavian and American—tend to be punctual and reserved. They dislike too much touching and noise; they prefer to keep their personal space and boundaries instead. These cultures tend to center around the individual instead of the group; thus food is not needed as the social lubricant to keep groups together."